RootsWeb: APG-L new Google Scholar search engine

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Subject: [KANSAS-STUDIES] New Scholarly Search Engine

GOOGLE LAUNCHES NEW SCHOLARLY SEARCH ENGINE

Google recently unveiled a new search engine that focuses on academic

materials. According to a company statement, "Google Scholar" focuses

on

and limits its results to "scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed

papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, and technical reports."

Google

officials say they have the cooperation of a broad range of academic

publishers, library groups, scholarly societies, and colleges though

the

officials would not name the specific participants.  Google officials

also

claim researchers may find articles on obscure topics on their site

that

Jstor and other similar search engines may overlook.

Google Scholar searches the full text of most of the documents it

indexes,

but in some cases the results point to articles or texts that can be

seen

only for a fee or with a subscription. In most such cases, users can

view a

free abstract of the article and then can decide whether they want to

seek

it out or buy it. The new tool also points researchers to other

related

works that may be of interest.

Google officials declined to state how they determined exactly how

material

is classified as "scholarly" or how Google Scholar determines which

results

are more relevant than others. But a company statement does say that

it

"takes into account the full text of each article as well as the

article's

author, the publication in which the article appeared, and how often it

has

been cited in scholarly literature."

To access Google Scholar, tap into: http://www.scholar.google.com .

SOURCE:  NCH Washington Update, 3 December 2004

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Mary Clement Douglass, CGRS

www.historical-matters.com

CGRS and Certified Genealogical Records Specialist are service marks of the 

Board for

Certification of Genealogists, used under license by those who have passed 

BCG's rigorous examination process.